Mixing politics with art: Queer pride and Israeli apartheid

Mixing politics with art: Queer pride and
Israeli apartheid

When we see pictures of queers
being man-handled by security personnel, it is usually
because the guards’ violence is an extension of
queerphobia. Indeed, New Zealand’s first gay pride week in
the 1970s was held in the wake of the 1969
Stonewall riots, wherein queers in New York took up
resistance against the queerphobic violence of the police.
Many of those early queer activists would quite probably be
dismayed to realise that the security officials in this
photo were organised by the Auckland Pride Festival
itself.

The protesters disrupted the Auckland Pride
Festival on Saturday February 22nd in support of Palestine,
in opposition to the Israeli Embassy-sponsored float that
Pride had taken on. It is unusual for a country to send a
delegation to a Pride event in New Zealand, but the press
release sent by the Israeli Embassy indicated that it
was somewhat done in response to the Boycott, Divestments
and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that is growing in
participation around the world. The Palestinian-led
initiative involves boycotting all Israeli goods and
cultural events, as a way of drawing attention to the
violence suffered under Israel's ongoing war on
Palestine.

On the same day, a group of people gathered in
Wellington to encourage people to boycott the Israeli dance
troupe Batsheva, who were performing in the Fringe Festival.
They were met by a group of Zionists who had largely been
brought down from Hamilton to counter-protest. Approximately
fifteen people who had paid to go to Batsheva turned away
once they knew it was sponsored by the Israeli
government.

Palestine supporters speak
outside St James Theatre.

The objections
raised--that boycotting Batsheva is not the place or time to
exercise anti-Israel politics--ring similar to the "don't
mix politics with sport" line touted during the Springbok
Tour in 1981. But despite limitations, international
boycotts can often have a significant effect on government
policy. The South African apartheid regime was significantly
shaken by cultural boycotts from other countries during the
1970s and 80s, including New Zealand. Veteran anti-apartheid
activist John Minto attended the Wellington rally on
Saturday, and said afterwards that the campaign felt the
same way as the anti-South African government protests had
in their initial stages. When it comes to international
activism, wars are often fought and won along cultural
lines.

It is even stranger to argue not to mix politics
with queer pride, given that queer pride's origins are
heavily political. But as queer identity becomes more
normalised in Pākehā New Zealand culture (given that
queerphobia was not a feature of Māori culture
pre-colonisation), queer politics become more conservative,
moulding to fit the existing institutions of dominant
society. This is a process known as homonormativism, as
detailed in this
talk by a queer activist; the idea that there is a
'proper' way to be a queer person. That person is gay (not
bi or pansexual), cisgendered, able-bodied and keen to get
monogamously married and serve in the military.

In
particular, the 'ideal queer' in normative Western politics
is a white person. Unfortunately, far from being universally
liberatory, queer scenes across Aotearoa and the world have
as many problems with racism as any other social or
political group. Auckland Pride and their supporters may
theoretically condemn targeted anti-queer violence, but it
is unclear what they have to say in support of Palestinian
queers and queer activists, who are among those being
systematically oppressed by the Israeli
state.

A
Palestinian rights activist confronts a Zionist at Auckland
Pride. Photo by John Darroch.

The Zionists at
Auckland Pride said
that Israel is "the only country in the Middle East where
gay people are accepted." However, queerphobia still exists
in both Israel and Palestine, albeit in different ways and
configurations to Western versions. Moreover, casting Israel
as a queer-friendly saviour invisibilises Palestinian queer
activists and makes their work on the ground harder. Most
notably, queer oppression is often by necessity put on the
back-burner while the bombs drop over Gaza. But
additionally, using the spectre of Arab queerphobia to
justify Israel’s existence means that queer liberation may
end up being dismissed by queerphobic Palestinians as an
unwelcome tool of the invaders. This process of supporting
cultural imperialism and warfare on the basis of queer
rights is known as pinkwashing.

Many
contemporary New Zealanders may want to watch gay pride
events without getting into arguments about racism; after
all, queerness does not represent a political identity for
everyone who identifies as queer. Many others believe that
cultural boycotts of Israel won't make much difference in
the long run. However, the BDS campaign has made significant
progress in the last few months worldwide, spurred on by
many boycotting the SodaStream company, promoted by Scarlett
Johansson, as it emerged that their
factories were built and maintained in the West
Bank.

The 1981 Springbok Tour protests have become
part of New Zealand folklore, a time when New Zealanders had
a significant political impact on the world stage. In
reality, the anti-apartheid movement of that time was
similarly hampered by naysayers, people who wanted to watch
sport uncritically, and even pro-apartheid supporters. The
Auckland Pride Festival may yet find itself on the wrong
side of history in the twilight or at least late afternoon
days of Israeli
apartheid.

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